Tennessee congressional candidate Brett Carter is taking what has become a move typical of Democrats this election season — distancing oneself from party leaders — and taking it a step further by calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to step down.

In an interview with POLITICO Thursday evening, Carter slammed Pelosi as a polarizing figure whose leadership of the Democratic Caucus imperiled the party’s House majority and said it was time for someone else to take her place.

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“She has become a lightning rod who is keeping us from getting our message out,” said Carter, who also criticized Pelosi for her support of the financial bailout package. “This takes away a baseball bat that Republicans are using to beat us over the heads incessantly.”

“We’re going to lose control with the position we’re in now,” he said. “This is something that a lot of Democrats aren’t saying but are thinking.”

Earlier in the day, Carter, an attorney and Iraq war veteran, held a conference call with local reporters and said it was “incumbent” on Pelosi to step down. His remarks came only days after a Tennessee columnist wrote that Pelosi’s leadership atop the party left Democrats like Carter hamstrung.

Carter is facing an uphill battle against GOP state Sen. Diane Black for the 6th District seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Bart Gordon, who is retiring. Democratic strategists privately regard the district, in which John McCain won 62 percent of the vote in 2008, as all but lost. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has yet to invest in TV ad time there.

A Pelosi spokeswoman declined to comment.

Still, Carter’s remarks represent the boldest attempt yet of a House Democratic candidate to distinguish himself from Pelosi. Rep. Joe Donnelly of Indiana has run TV ads criticizing “Nancy Pelosi’s energy tax,” while Rep. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania has aired commercials featuring constituents praising him for “stan[ding] up” to Pelosi and President Barack Obama. Rep. Heath Shuler, a North Carolina Democrat, told an audience recently that he was considering not voting for Pelosi as speaker.

Carter declined to say who he thought should take Pelosi’s position, saying: “There are a number of people I could see in that role.”

“What I am saying is that we need a Democrat who is in the best position to be speaker,” said Carter. “To me, we need to make sure we are in the best position to lead.”

too bad buddy once you have slept with the whore...you can't undo it. Ask tiger...the democrats have prostituted themselves and the AMERICAN people will judge accordingly! They did try the lipstick on a pig...and well it still was alas a PIG!

I'm not surprised by this. I'm surprised Dems haven't pushed back before now. I just can't understand how Pelosi got to be speaker...I have never heard her speak intelligently...she seems to be an air head...I don't mean to be rude or unkind but every time I hear her speak, I keep asking how she ever got to be speaker...remember her: "We have to pass the bill before we know what's in it?" or something like that...or when she spoke of her favorite word: "You know, the word...the word...isn't it a beautiful word....you know, the word." I know she meant the 'Word"...but she seemed so spaced out...well, hopefully she will be 'spaced out' - out of the position of speaker...if anyone knows the secret of how she became so powerful, I'd sure like to understand...

I'm not surprised by this. I'm surprised Dems haven't pushed back before now. I just can't understand how Pelosi got to be speaker...I have never heard her speak intelligently...she seems to be an air head...I don't mean to be rude or unkind but every time I hear her speak, I keep asking how she ever got to be speaker...remember her: "We have to pass the bill before we know what's in it?" or something like that...or when she spoke of her favorite word: "You know, the word...the word...isn't it a beautiful word....you know, the word." I know she meant the 'Word"...but she seemed so spaced out...well, hopefully she will be 'spaced out' - out of the position of speaker...if anyone knows the secret of how she became so powerful, I'd sure like to understand...

AWWW poor little rethuglican lite...can't win in a district that is conservative...and I am pretty sure they can't stand a women who is not being "submissive to some man". Here is an idea...stop trying to be repub. lite...be different...draw a bright line between you and your opponent and do it like a pit bull. If you don't win this go round...so be it. But everyone will know where you stand, that you offer different game plan. But it is VERY unattractive in any candidate to blame others for when they don't have the personality or guts to really run with the ball. Politics is very dirty sport...don't get in it if you don't have the ...ahem...testicular fortitude that Pelosi has.

She could eat your lunch and you too for that matter. She is going to go down as one of the most powerful speakers in history.

The democrats are starting to eat their own. I thought Pelosi stood for all the the Democratic party stood for? Now that they see the error of their ways they want to jump ship like a bunch of rats...sorry it's too late.

You voted in Obamacare and the massive debt...were finding someone else to undo the damage...Carter should step aside from his attempt to run...he's no better than Pelosi.

pelosi is a dimwitted moron, living in a dream world with hairlip reid. I know it's not nice to make fun of the mentally challenged, or someone with alzheimers but this inept, incompetent anti-American is out of control.

The month the lovely and talented tax raising witch of the west with a bad face lift and who drinks too much booze took over Congress the unemployment rate was 4.5%. Today it is 9.6%. The underemployment rate in January 2007 was 1.2%, it is now 18.7%. House values were 97% of their high. Today house values are 64% of that amount.

Yeah, Nancy maybe it is time to take your ugly carcass home and just do us a favor. You should also pay a sustainable wage on your multi-million vineyard.